Corracrin Church

Aran Sweaters Direct on Jul 18, 2016

St. Patrick’s Church at Corracrin is located on the Dublin Road near the village of Emyvale in County Monaghan. Its churchyard is well known as the burial place of Canon Patrick Moynagh, a priest who helped many local citizens emigrate to Canada during the Famine of 1845.

Between 1830 and 1850, thousands from Monaghan and surrounding counties travelled to and settled on Prince Edward Island, sometimes referred to as New Ireland. They built communities, tended their farms, and practised their trades. They moved on to a prosperous new life, but did not forget Ireland or Reverend Moynagh.

Canon Patrick Moynagh served as parish priest at Donagh until the time of his death in 1860. He was a man remembered for giving freely to the poor. He paid the passage of many of the emigrants to Prince Edward Island, and these emigrants established a connection between the Canadian island and County Monaghan that exists even to the present time.

After Reverend Moynagh’s death his parishioners built a memorial tomb in his honor at St. Patrick’s Church at Corracrin, which is still visited by locals and visiting descendants of the emigrants from Prince Edward Island.